Tuesday, September 24, 2013

New coffee shop coming to Tibet Shop at Georgia and Keefer, looks close to opening

A few weeks ago, I pointed out that there were no coffee shops in Park View, with a big gap from 11th Street to Warder and Randolph Street all the way down to Harvard. And now it looks like the gap will be filled.

The twitter account for MIP Real Estate let me know that there was a coffee shop coming to the Tibet Shop, the now closed shop at 3213 Georgia Avenue NW, at Keefer Place. Details are sketchy but the tweeter said "buildout is moving swiftly, it appears to be 2-3 weeks away but I don't know when they want to open."

It's definitely nice to see another shop, though it's too bad that it's in the Tibet Shop space. The shop was a little gift shop full of Tibetan, Himalayan and Far Eastern items, a branch of the shop of the same name in Adams Morgan. I stopped by early this year and really liked it, but it didn't seem like a good spot for a shop, given that there isn't much foot traffic there.

However, a coffee shop is better than the alternative -- this was also the location that Petworth Liquors was going to move into. Petworth Liquors is widely reviled in the neighborhood for allowing loiterers and drunks to hang out outside, who often harass passersby, and a recent ANC 1B meeting featured a number of angry neighbors voicing their opposition to the move from their current location at 3210 Georgia Ave NW. After that, and with a lack of ANC support, which voted against their request to move their license, they changed their mind on the move. The coffee shop seems to be the result.

The new coffee shop will be at 3213 Georgia Ave NW. I'll post more info as I get it!